Florence
by Emily Poe
Summary: For a paper at school, I had to write a scene from another characters point of view from the book Bless Me, Ultima. For my character, I chose Florence.For the scene, I chose his death.


I walk down the sloping hill. The green grass is soft on my feet, though some dried grass pokes me, it doesn't hurt. It really was just the Earth, reminding me that she was still there, but I will never forget that. Only an idiot does. The sun is hot today, though it is summer. It is always hot around this time of year. That's why you make sure to have a small break during midday when you work the fields. If you get too hot, you could collapse and even die. At least, that's what I have heard. I can't do much about the heat, it is to be expected. Birds fly overhead and some caw, laughing at the miserable lives of the people below them. But, then again, they had all the reason to laugh. While they were free up in the sky, humans are bolted to the earth, forever wandering it. I sigh, feeling a soft breeze go around me, hugging me and then letting go, tousling my hair and pulling at it. I yawn, feeling sleepy, though I really had no reason to. Maybe the heat? I do not know.

I can hear the voices of all the other people around me, laughing, yelling, screaming with joy, but from where I am, I can only hear the whispers of conversations. I look over to the life guard, talking to some girls, barely even glancing over at the lake and the people. No one ever got hurt, why should he? I walk a little more, finally reaching the sand, hot because of the sun. It burns my feet and I wince a little, stepping back into the in-between, what was grass and sand. I lift me foot up and look at the bottom of it. It's red from the sand's heat. I put it back down and look back at the scene before me. The water's still quite far away. Not wanting to burn my feet more than I really need to, I walk along the line between the grass and the sand looking at my feet, not realizing that it was creeping closer to the water the farther I got and the voices behind me started to soften to just the soft whispers. Suddenly, hot sand was sprayed across my face, the salt mix stinging my eyes, and knocking me down. Tears burst to my eyes and start pool out. I rub my arm against my eyes, tears starting to get the burning salt out of my eyes. It hurts, but I do not call out. I've been hurt worse, much worse. I hear laughing and look up, to see Horse, Abel, and Bones, with Horse laughing the hardest, clutching his stomach as waves laughter rippled through him. There was sand sticking to his hands.

I look at them and remembered when they had beaten Antonio for not giving me penance. He should have given me penance. I look at them. They all believe in the God who has sinned and I did not. I wonder, if there is a God, is his punishment for my lack of faith to make his children hurt me, taunt me, break me, kill me? I do not know. I had once hung out with these boys, I still do, just not as often. Why? I was alone before I met them, I'm alone when they go pray to their God, the one who has sinned against me, I will be alone long after we part. Being alone is not that bad. Sometimes, it's actually nice. But then, there is Antonio. He is nice, too. He has never hurt me, he has never taunted me, and he has never tried to break me. Yes, I could be with Antonio. He is nice, he is my friend. He is the only one who has ever tried to help me.

When all the others had me on the ground, telling, yelling at Antonio to give me penance, he did not. He did not force what I did not believe onto me. That makes me happy.

I remember them beating him. I could do nothing. I was scared, scared not for myself, but scared that he would be really hurt. What if they had hurt him. What if horse had punched him just a little too hard or stompped on him just a little too much? What if the boys had thrown him on the ground with a little too much force? Then Antonio would not be here and I would stil be alone. But maybe that would be alright, I do not mind being alone.

The laughing subsides and I hear sand crunching as footsteps come toward me. Looking up, I see that Horse has moved forward, his ugly horse face looking at me with a twisted smile. I get to me feet slowly, looking at them, ready for them to throw more. But, they didn't.

"Hey, Florence. Come over here." called Horse, a smirk across his face. Cautiously, I move toward him, ready to bolt if he tries lunging at me. He doesn't. He hawks a spit wad over onto the sand. I hawk one further. Abel laughed, yelling out he beat you, he beat you. Horse looked pissed. I looked back at him, daring him.

"Bet you I can dive farther and better than you can." he says, challenging me. I shrug my shoulders and look back at him. I didn't really care if he could beat me or not.

Suddenly he pushes me back on the ground. My back starts to burn because of the sand, my elbows burn as the sand digs into the cracks. I stay for a moment, and then I get back up. Horse spits at my sand covered feet and shoves at my shoulder.

"What's wrong? Afraid you can't beat me?"

"No."

He frowns, finally becoming tired of me and shoves my shoulder as he turns away from me. I watch as the others go back with him, shoving and pushing each other in the water near the wall. They splash into the water and then one climbs up onto the wall and jumps into the water, splashing the others. I stand there for a moment, watching them. Then, I start to walk again, on the hot sand, near the wall. Even though they do not like me and I do not like them, we still stick together. We really had no choice.

My feet feel cool relief as the touch the water of the dirty green and brown lake. I smile as relief fill the soles of my feet. I walk deeper, feeling waves of cool relief go through me as I wade deeper and deeper into the water, the muddy sand squishing between my toes. It feels gross, but I am use to it by now. As I get waste deep, I start to kick my feet and swim. I am a strong swimmer, I have always been a strong swimmer. The water helps me along and I smile. I dive down a little, closing my eyes as the water fills around me, going through my hair and over my skin. I come back up and see the others not too far off, swimming and playing and jumping off the wall. I swim closer to Horse and he looks at me.

"Bet you I can dive farther than you can." I say, a devious smirk on my face.

He smirks back and we swim towards the wall and climb on top of it, as they watch betting with each other who will win, even though they don't have a nickle to their names. He looks at me, making sure I'm ready. I am. We both take deep breaths and jump off the wall, diving, swimming lower. I don't open my eyes. I have alway been afraid at what I might see. The truth can be ugly. I kick faster, determined to beat Horse. It was fun to see Horse flustered and angry, even though I couldn't see him now, I could imagine it. As I bring my hands behind me, pulling myself even farther down, my forehead suddenly slams into something, hard, cement like. The wall. I tumble and turn over. I have realized that I've gone to far, to low. I need to get back up, up. I wave my arms through the water trying to get ahold of something as my chest starts to hurt. My heart beats faster as terror rises into me. My stomach hurts, and I just want to get to the surface. I do not care if Horse wins or not, I just need to make it to the surface. My arm is slashed by something and it sticks to me. Pain fills my arm, spreading, as sharp, jagged metal pierces my skin and encircles my arm. As I try to wrench my arm out, the metal digs deeper. I kick, I scream, though there is nothing to be heard. My chest hurts and my stomach lurches, but nothing comes out as I wring and jerk my body. I had eaten nothing this morning.

I start to get tired and I continue swallowing water as my aching lungs try to get at the air that is no longer there. I can't tell what is around me, all I can feel is the water, and yet, not even that. I feel as if I'm floating in air, my lungs tearing each other, my stomach filled with dirty water, sick. I open my eyes, hoping to see something. What I see turns my heart cold and maks me go numb. Nothing. Only black is around me. I can not tell what is up, I can not tell what is down. My eyes go unfocused, though I cannot tell. I can't see. My hair swirls around me, I can feel it brush my cheek. My lungs are dead and my stomach, non-existant. I cannot move, the water holding me. I have no voice, and I must scream.

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><p>This is like, crap writing. Ugh, so much OOCness! I tried to write how the author wrote, but I really couldn't imitate her writing style. Ah well...<p>

If any readers actually found this, I would like it if you could review. You don't have to, but much appreciation if you do!

**Bless Me, Ultima does NOT belong to me, I do not make money off of this, it was just a school paper.**


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